tonight the u.k. faces a loyalty test in a full close referendum exacerbating the standoff with argentina over sovereignty and now oil comment coming up this hour. also two years on nuclear sentiment gets stronger in japan as the country marks the anniversary of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters with many unsatisfied of the speed of the clean up operation. the hostage drama resolved in syria ukrainian journalist kidnapped by rebels has escaped after being held in the threat of death for almost six months we've got a story. very

good evening from moscow if you just joined us here live t h q tonight at eight pm the disputed falkland islands are voting on a second day of a referendum on whether or not to remain a british territory but a loyal pro british sentiment among many on it is leaves little doubt as to the outcome while argentino still lays claim to the islands has called the vote a sham party's polly boycott reports and on the toxic mix of nationalism politics and oil. these are some very far flung islands from britain a tiny territory now nevertheless the islanders are expected to vote overwhelmingly in favor of remaining a british overseas territory but this isn't just a question of national identity we know that the argentinian government's already dismissed the vote as a propaganda exercise cooked up in london but there's the prospect of all that a lot of people are talking about now there's speculation surrounding how much oil

there is an estimated sixty billion barrels of oil potentially to be found in the full cleanse basin and that's worth about one hundred sixty seven billion dollars to compare that with britain's oil reserves well they seem scant in comparison the u.k. has an estimated two point eight five billion barrels of oil so if this estimation proves to be correct if the falkland islands do indeed have these sixty billion barrels then we're talking about more oil than the reserves of the usa could tar or even libya to talk about this i'm joined in the studio by ken hurst he's a journalist came to what extent is this dispute a question of resources for both the british and the argentinian government well it could be argued that it's always been questionable whether it's morally or logistically sustainable to try to protect. a colony that eight thousand miles away

i suppose the argument one could have added to that is economically sustainable said he was ships and so on and so forth but of course the oil rather changes all of that but it only changes if you believe it's morally justifiable to go on what we call it you know a colonial plundering mission something we did in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries and personally i don't happen to believe it is but a lot of people are saying that this is a question of domestic politics for the argentinean president because there is a flailing economy at home and. you know picking up the question of that island sovereignty is going to increase her ratings back home well that may or may not be true certainly south america block may be having its economic issues but it's certainly becoming generally an economic powerhouse part of the the the brazilian the russian the indian the chinese the rise of those nations and it's part of all of that and we've had issues haven't been about. their source carrying our flags

not being allowed into some some of those ports so there is that issue around it but you know i don't know how sustainable that is it isn't trying to ramp up. argentina or came to the islands just a way of increasing popularity at home well it may be but you've got to remember that president cristina fernandez actually had a landslide victory herself in the two thousand and eleven election i think it was so she's probably more politically stable than david cameron is and finally do you think the referendum is going to resolve this dispute referendums don't resolve disputes actually negotiation resolve disputes and that's what really needs to happen down there in the in the falklands or the melbourne of whichever you call them well the result is now expected to be some still around twenty three hundred g.m.t. but for now let's get some more perspective on the vote gets more thoughts on it from dr sylvia system of the institute of statecraft dr good evening thanks for

being on r.t. international even earlier we spoke to a british m.p. told us that london will need to hold any sort of future talks with argentina of the people on the others decide they want to stay with britain is it correct or not in your view. can i say that everything. i disagree weird especially. not about oil. and. where to stay here. argentina exclusive rights for exploration and drilling of all those hundreds of billions of barrels argent but as long as they could remain british argentina would still say thank you but no thank you sergeant it's not about oil if you really think it's about or you're missing the point. so what is the point as you see it it's about argent time national some and it's about mrs gray being

a national next. in one thousand nine hundred two there was another government that was a military dictatorship that decided which was becoming increasingly unpopular that the way to erase its popularity was by invading i'm afraid we now have a good mcready government that eats into every serious trouble in economic economic trouble becoming increasingly or carry terri an increasingly tired trying to suppress press freedom amongst other sat also find it very convenient to agitate the national rates clegg put out who released yet although i'm sort of put in again i know you don't think there's any mileage in the in the oil side of it yet huge potentially huge reserves have been found there already started to beat up by british companies you told me the what huge economic side to it is not playing a part on either side of this certainly does not play any part. diener has the second largest deposits of gas on the planet it has got huge

deposits of oil. have been going down in the past ten years and argentina has had to import energy to the tune of ten or thirteen thousand dollars so the supply would be lovely for them surely you know because they've got the only one in argentina or the reserve has been a result of the investment because of argentina it cannot be outcry government he said nothing to do with resources argentina has got plenty of oil right now flip it to the other side what about regarding britain the north sea oil and gas is running . this britain want to say and you tell me they're not interested at all no i'm not saying they're not interested they've always been interested and so west argentina in the one nine hundred ninety s. when they had agreed to share their. exploration the drilling there were very sophisticated and complete maps setting out zones for exclusive grilling and

exploitation by the walkmen islands government by the u.k. government by the argentine government and at the same time there were other areas of collaboration now in two thousand and three president mr and mrs kerry late husband with groups from the commission that had been going on by bent court over to a year saying we do not want any more discussions about oil nor about anything else because they are not needing to what we want which are discussions about sovereign so what about what the people want to go back to the sovereignty thing the people on the island staunchly british union jack flood everyone. at the edge of argentina says it doesn't matter what they say it's a territorial market not what the people on the island think what you think about that when i think it's a very. dubious argument first of all argentina talks about terrorist. integrity and the iranians as an enclave i mean you can hardly sit talk about an

enclave when you've got three hundred miles away from the argentine mainland and be other king is about saying that this referendum is not going to separate disputed that referendum was never intended to settle any dispute the referendum was a result and i mean intended consequence of argentina's political or foreign policy stance of trying to make as much noise as forcible about the falklands for britain hoping of course if it does come up positive as expected it it will fall the british way that it will give britain more clout over its claim to these are and surely not no no i don't think there's anything to do about clout and about the claim it's about telling the world that argentina it's not interested in argentina and we're interested in territory for national need state recent not even

for it konami reasons and if argentina i mean the argentine foreign minister was in london a few weeks ago and he actually said and he was quoted in the press here and in argentina the corcoran islanders do not exist now that is a very strong statement to make all the people and why because argentina are plates with international. law between nations and says well they are not in fact a people because they have been transplanted and therefore do not have a right to determine their own future we can look after their interests which the benny patronized thing and i would find myself offensive to have a third party or even britain deciding what my interests are more revealed a course of twenty three june to tonight for now dr. sr system does state craft

thank you it was so much for your important program tonight nice to see it and we will know what you think as well about it as well r.t. dot com we've been running a poll there all day asking what you think argentina's next step will be if the falkland islanders as we think they will decide to stay british this is what you've been telling us so far thanks if you have voted as well almost half of you say that argentina will declare the vote rigged or illegitimate slightly fewer of you think it will be told to move to britain by other south america neighbor fewer still believe argentina will call for a new referendum down the line only a fraction of you believe one is ours will finally back off from its claim still plenty of time to tell us what you think on one of the big stories of the day r.t. dot com please meantime domestically in the u.k. economic hardship appears to be sparing no one these days coming out with a story of world war two veterans whose families have been forced to sell them or mentos and memories and their medals just to pay for basic care is a sad state of affairs.

japan is grieving with death of over nineteen thousand people killed during that devastating earthquake and tsunami it is now two years since the tragedy unfolded which also triggered of course the world's worst atomic disaster in twenty five years the fukushima plant saw a nuclear meltdown and the release of radioactive materials dirty sean thomas was in japan and witnessed the aftermath. when i first arrived what struck me the most is that the scale of the disaster was much larger than what many people may even remember in fact what you had was you had the earthquake you had the tsunami then

you had the nuclear disaster and then the lingering disaster after the fact so traveling to the coast homes destroyed villages decimated and the people doing what they could to try and pick up their lives people we spoke to have a great distrust for the government they don't at that time they don't feel that they were getting all of the information that they needed to for their safety and i can tell you that from the get go there was a lot of mistrust in the government about how the situation was being handled on the ground john thomas there will be nuclear tragedy also sparked massive protests all over the globe against the atomic energy oxys tomball investigates if the world is ready it to wean itself off nuclear. if we look at japan first of all there before the before this leak nuclear energy made about twenty five percent of japan's energy needs afterwards all nuclear reactors were suspended some have since

been restarted to try to cope with blackouts far away in germany the public and politicians were horrified by what they saw unraveling in japan and that led in part to the blunders tag's decision in may two thousand and eleven to end all nuclear power in germany by two thousand and twenty two in france a very different policy since the one nine hundred seventy s. france has really pushed nuclear energy as a clean and safe provider of energy it still makes up nearly eighty percent of france's and energy needs and there although public opinion has changed slightly it's still more in favor of nuclear power than it is in japan if we look at japan again the new government is more pro nuclear energy than the previous government was but they're going to have a big a big time trying to convince the japanese population that it is worth it one thing

they have on their side is that nuclear power is demonstrable cheaper than other alternatives and fossil fuels or renewables there just isn't enough of those renewables yet to try and cover the gap tomball in the argument here over nuclear or not well you can read up more as well on how japan's fixing the consequences of the fukushima tragedy on our website are to dot com as well as read expert opinions on the country's nuclear futures a big debate going on right now. offer was six months in rebel captivity ukrainian journalist working in syria as a skate is reportedly on the way to damascus the captors were threatening to kill or unless they got a fifty million dollar ransom of his when he goes across the story the information that r.t.d. causes coming from on hard question was ex-husband who cost contect our channel and said that his but his ex-wife seems to have escaped her captivity in homes in syria she has made a post in her live journal account say and i'm quoting alice's back more details to

follow on her question as ukrainian journalist who has been taken captive in a cobra by the free syrian army rebels who threatened to kill her unless the korean government paid the fifteen million dollars ransom that didn't happen and the rebels did not proceed with their threats on her because she was incredibly critical off of the syrian rebels six to throughout the entire conflict and she has been very active in showing her support for the syrian president bashar last said to me now when it comes to syrian opposition the syrian opposition of course has been largely does jointed in their efforts to overthrow the regime of the syrian president aust said but they haven't shown any unity of whatsoever and one of the one of the leaders of one of those fragments of the syrian opposition has been in moscow on monday talking to russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov there have been reports in western media very recently about u.k.

france and the united states military personnel training some of the still syrian ever read all forces in jordan primarily training them to use anti-tank weapons and this sort of training according to this of member of the syrian opposition is something that is only is only making this syrian crisis worse in an interview to our tease arabic channel he has made that statement. oh good two of them and i want the opposition to be united for at least we would know who to negotiate with but unfortunately there are many small armed groups we are trying to establish contact with the most rational and far seen opposition representatives respect international humanitarian law and the basic constitutional principles that unite us the syrians whose actions aren't based on religious beliefs or malicious murders there's much. aside what is your view on the main

political problems of the syrian crisis for example the preservation of assad's presidency civilian death and their position being supplied with weapons and a cult will have said that well first the arms supply should be stopped completely both for the rebels and for the syrian army second concerning the presidency we need time syria needs a boat ten to twenty years a parliamentarian ism to eliminate the idea of destroying one person and the role of the president so we can see that the majority of syrians support our program that will redistribute power from the president. so fun to afraid of clashes with the government which is going to be formed in istanbul and it is considered to control so-called free districts mostly not you have. we are far from it still i think that if a project starts with the french foreign minister statement and then was discussed

in istanbul's lobbies over three months the project doesn't have any future it is likely to be a farce and it will actually be much better if it is not realized at all because it won't gain any support or respect they still don't have a worthy candidate for prime minister they don't have any political modesty the correct way of thinking or political experience. now it appears as if god's will is preventing some from going to war we talk about that very soon tonight i'm going to mung secular jews is growing as the ultra religious are excluded from compulsory military service claiming prayer is equally important for the country security is coming up after the break. for some people the extreme cold isn't a chilling threat to life or imminent death it's a cool thing if you look you can see that the water in my body feels really warm

now this is good for you. they plunge into icy water to make themselves stronger you can't get used to the cold if you can tolerate it and you can struggle with. people of snow and ice picks as a frost. surviving the cold. choose your language. we can we know if. someone. chooses to use the consensus you. choose to give us that invigorating to. choose the stories that impact your life choose access to.

well again eight twenty one moscow time that israel's witnessing a widening religious divide with a difference secular jews who have to do military service claim it's unfair that the old true religious are excluded from such stuti the lot of those say their contribution to the country's security is no less important party's policy as spoke to people on both sides of the argument. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is struggling to form a government five weeks after parliamentary elections he can't get potential coalition partners to agree the stumbling block is whether or not ultra religious orthodox jews should serve in the i.d.f. the religious parties are certainly beginning to understand things have changed they're going to find themselves challenged on many fronts military service is

going to be one of them and as a result they will have to conserve their political capital to fight on the things they care about most most ultra religious jews have never been in the israeli army and religious political parties have never been pressed on the issue like they've been now but january's parliamentary elections saw new players coming to the fore who missed on yahoo needs in his coalition if he's to form a majority government but they're insisting the religious played a part. like this woman who spearheaded a campaign with other like minded israeli mothers they're fed up with what they call an injustice that the children should serve one others don't to thirty now that the something is very unfair that we are going to give our children to the army not knowing if we are going to get them back in fifty percent of the mother or the new. do not have to warry because their children do not go to the army iran is twenty eight years old married with two children while others his age were doing

their national service he was here starting far from being apologetic he feels the contribution he makes is as important if not more for him. the backbone of the jewish people i think viable occasion first of all is to preserve the jewish intellect and the jewish mind for our city for this country's sake and for the generations to come and yes while i might be not putting my life at risk and also contributing to this country's security they also say which doesn't make any sense for me that it is good in that study the torah is soldier is not getting killed so if you are taking twenty two thousand eight hundred that were created until now for independent. what they can mean they didn't study enough but the frustration among secular israelis who make up most of the population goes beyond just army service they complain ultra religious jews don't work or pay taxes while

receiving disproportionate government support just about every city in israel has a religious neighborhood like this one in ten israelis is all too also ducks the challenge remains how to include it in a society that is increasingly hostile to them whether netanyahu eventually chooses to include religious partners or leave them out of his coalition there's no running away from the growing internal divide in an already divided country policy r.t. jerusalem. just checking we're going online should r.t. dot com surprising claims that hitler was no bomb but almost half of austrians polled recently claimed they see some benefits to hitler's nine hundred thirty eight and exaction of a country show you might be interested in that story when read up more about it maybe give a thought to plus the high ranking bulgarian priest who thought selling his pricey rolex watch to paid church bills is a good deed but he thinks so but it's cash strapped congregation don't think so bitterly why darted off on. having fought for their country's

freedom some world war two veterans in the u.k. and are struggling to survive financially austerity and skyrocketing living costs and leave even the most decorated heroes with no other choice but to sell their medals just to make ends meet so the first story i fired a short burst from five hundred feet producing strikes on a port and you don't flame up here soon it began to dive steeply exploding into the ground these are the private extracts from the flight logs of world war two night pilot brand burbridge despite being a highly skilled and decorated pilot his story has remained largely untold until now ninety two and suffering with outsiders prances in a nursing home and his family struggling with high care costs have put the incredible memento up for sale i said that these are your medals we're selling them and there was a smile and there was

a sort of recognition that you know this this is what he these were his so i have no doubt that he's probably got some understanding of. this happening the family are hoping to raise more than one hundred thousand pounds at the auction with their father's nursing home costs averaging around fifty thousand pounds a year and service that is the money will go a long way to paying for their father's treatment the ice and tell the remarkable story of a man he began the war as a conscientious objector but who ended it is arguably one of britain's most prolific night flies and the story goes one short absolutely true never really because you only have room for the engines hoping that maybe lives will be so. pleased to see. a parachute emerge from everything so this is prances pilot flying logbook and slowly unusually he also includes his

combat reports now this particular one you can see describes one of his exceptional achievements during the war where one night alone he shot down four enemy german planes now that was absolutely remarkable and was described by a fellow night flying eighth as one of the most exceptional sorties flown during the war. and he looks planes there's that recognition that it's part of his life over the. people so quickly so. yeah i think it's yes the elderly care needs to be more funding for our elderly care so that they don't have to sell all their possessions and all their what they fought for of their home you know in order to pay for that i think that's that's the hardest thing british but trying to do would be

a tax free pension but with sky high living in care costs and often that's simply not enough. shockingly and it's estimated that ex service personnel account for around one in ten the u.k.'s homeless politicians are criticised for abandoning but shien's in the need leaving it to charities to pick up the slack and we have hundreds of people who come to veterans and their dependents who contact us every year who need help with cat looking at the ageing population it's not likely that those the number of people we help would go down anytime say every year in the u.k. their keep they pay tribute to those people in their country but in a nation where everything is only added to the number of needing the brown fervor his story is an important reminder that for the rest of the year away from the ceremonies and the cameras and many voices that turns the faithing daily personal

challenge is the final go on to serve. a special report surviving the cold coming up after the break. the month before the oscars and what annoys you with their predictions and the most after everyone complains about the results but it isn't being talked about much as the few hundred people who gathered to protest the glamour filled awards show what protest the asker's you ask well although the film life of pi won the oscar for best visual effects effects to you that made the movie look so amazing rhythm and hues has filed for bankruptcy quickly after the film's release you know that seems like a bit of a discrepancy i mean the crew.